The Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, has cleared the air over the death of a pregnant woman, Josephine Olayemi Odufowo­ra, whose father, Babajide Olayemi, attributed to alleged negligence of the hospital.

The hospital in a statement made available to newsmen through the Head, Public Relations and Infor­mation, Segun Orisajo, con­firmed that the mother of the deceased, Beatrice Olayemi, discharged her daughter against medical advice.

A copy of the ‘Discharge Against Medical Advice’ form was sighted and con­firmed by newsmen.

The deceased, a pregnant woman with two babies, was referred from General Hospi­tal, Ota, according to records, but later died at a private hospital after her discharge against medical advice.

Contrary to the allegation of the father, who accused the hospital of negligence for six hours without attention, the FMC said the deceased got the best attention from its medical team and was responding to treatment be­fore her discharge against medical advice.

According to the state­ment, late Josephine was presented at the FMC on July 13 with thyroid disease in pregnancy at an estimated gestational age of 25 weeks, complicated with severe low­er abdominal pain.

The management said a diagnosis of Graves’ disease in pregnancy – multiple ges­tations – was confirmed when the medical team attended to her at 10.10pm.

Giving the account of her treatment, the management said: “She was resuscitated and FBC, urgent PCV, ma­laria parasite, Urinalysis, urine M/C/S, VDRL, HbsAg, RVS, HVS M/C/S/,E/U/CR, TFT,LFT, Obst., USS were re­quested.

“By midnight, the med­ical team on call reviewed her. They agreed with the diagnosis and requested for more investigations, ECG, Echocardiography, thyroid scan and commenced her on Anti-thyroid medications.

“Patient’s symptoms abated except for occasional abdominal pain (mild) and this was managed with an­algesics.

“She was reviewed on the 15th of June, 2020 with the result of Obstetric ultra sound. The demise of one twin was discussed with her and the need to manage the second twin conservatively was discussed with her due to her toxic clinical state and possible complications with aggressive intervention.

“She agreed to the man­agement plan as explained. Thereafter, the Prognosis was made known and essentially, the need to complete her out­standing investigations.

“By June 16, 2020; patient discharged herself against medical advice in spite of all persuasions.”

The deceased father had alleged mismanagement of her daughter by the staff of the FMC, adding that she was left unattended to for four hours.